How the Lay out sketches can be used in the Top Down Mold Design environment effectively? Will it be a good option? Is there any other better approach which can support drastic layout changes or concept changes or even the part model modifications?
How the Lay out sketches can be used in the Top Down Mold Design environment effectively? Will it be a good option? Is there any other better approach which can support drastic layout changes or concept changes or even the part model modifications?
I assume you are talking about the skeleton sketch method? You could use it in some areas but you won't see big gains. The problem is the cavity partline/inserts/side movements will be stuck in one part. This tends to be the bottle neck on rebuilds on more complex tools - and by this I mean the surfacing involved.
Now as far as the actual tool assembly beyond the splitting there could be gains there using the skeleton sketch method but TBH I have looked at it and I don't think it was worth it - sometimes it might I guess depending on the tool.
It is worth considering certain situations when a tool has been made and you need to do modifications to kill the cavity splits file - break external references especially if it's got a huge amount of features. Once the tool is made at that point it's either metal on(insert/weld) or metal off. It's pointless to some extent to try and run though the splits again - they are done and actual manufactured to the old part.
Another thing worth considering is if you modelled a load of the tool and yet another modified part comes in and it is considerable mods - supress everything below where you are working. I makes it a load faster to do the mods in the cavity split. Then you can strategically unsuppressed as you work through. Stops all the rebuilds.
Hello Richard, thank you for the briefing almost I have been thru the similar scenarios you have mentioned up there!! could you please support me with the method you have adopted for the design?
I've never used layout sketches, but they should work within the assembly that you draw them in. I use a Skeleton Sketch Part which can be used as the first part in every assembly/sub assembly of the project. You can do a search for Skeleton Sketch Part (SSP) and it should pull up some information for you to take a look at.
When using the SSP as part of your design intent you still need to be careful of how you relate the sketches to the part that it's driving, I like to isolate the new part and the SSP so I don't pick up a vertex or a face of an existing component, that way if you need to delete the part there are no errors to run after etc.
Another thing to keep in mind is when doing Top Down Design always push information/relations down the feature tree, never pull information uphill, that will open up for a chance to have circular rebuilds...
One more thing to keep in mind using an SSP to drive the entire design, only use the SSP when driving more then one part, otherwise keep the detail in the part that has nothing to do with another part, otherwise the SSP could bog down your design. Even though we may refer it to a SSP, that doesn't mean you need to stay with just sketches, the SSP can also have solids or surfaces to assist the design process.
We use assembly sketches to drive the mold base size, return pin locations, leader pin/bushing locations, ej guide pin/bushing locations, ej box bolt/dowel locations, rest button locations, ej plate bolt locations, injection location, KO pattern, and maybe a couple other things I'm forgetting about at the moment. Since our molds are almost always "in the solid" (no cavity/core inserts), we don't use the "Tooling Split" tool in Solidworks. We have a sub-assembly were we split the part and create the cavity & core. Slides & lifters are handled in a multitude of ways. The "Split" sub-assembly has a "split part" (which is empty), and cavity/core split parts (blocks that update in size based on the top level assembly sketches the drive the mold base size). Insert the molded part into the split assembly, merge it into the split part, and split it into a "core quilt" and a "cavity quilt" (quilt includes all the parting line & shut-off surfaces). We then just use a simple extruded cut up to body (surface body) in the cavity/core split parts. We have merge features in the actual cavity plate & core plate that merge the cavity/core split parts into them, so the split ripples into the assembly. When we get a modified part, we can sometimes incorporate the changes into the split part. Other times, it simply requires that the split be re-done from scratch. It took a lot of time to build our "start mold base", and we are continually doing little improvements to it. But it handles changes far better than any of the add-on mold design software available.
Curious how you have you sketches set up in the feature tree and if you have any performance issues. Do you have your sketches in a Part or just in the feature tree in the main assembly? If you have them just in the feature tree in the assembly, where are your sketches located, at the top of the feature tree or down at the bottom end of the feature tree?…
Mold Layout Sketches & Component Position Sketches are at the top of the top level assembly.
Equations in the top level assembly
We also have derived sketches in the sub-assemblies
It's not without it's quirks, but it works and it is much faster than any of the mold design add-ons. We also have prints already created/detailed for the assembly, cavity, core, and ej box. Just open the mold base from our library, Pack&Go into the new job folder (renaming so the "00000-000" is changed to the shop order number for the job), and then open that assembly and run with it. Base size, leader pin/bushing size/length, ej guide pin/bushing size/length, straight PL lock size, support pillar size, can all be changed on the fly. It's an evolving thing, changing/improving as we discover better ways.
Nice - Thanks for sharing - just for people not understanding the importance of sketch positions, note that Doug is showing the sketches at the top of the feature tree, then the information flows downhill, the correct way..
Also, having the "driving" sketches at the top makes it impossible for someone to edit them and associate them to be "driven" by something they are, directly or indirectly, "driving" (circular references)...which will cause system performance to plummet and rebuild times to be insanely long (and require multiple rebuilds to get a single change to "ripple through", or leave you with an assembly that is updated yet constantly showing that it needs to be rebuilt).
Mold Layout Sketches & Component Position Sketches are at the top of the top level assembly.
Equations in the top level assembly
We also have derived sketches in the sub-assemblies
It's not without it's quirks, but it works and it is much faster than any of the mold design add-ons. We also have prints already created/detailed for the assembly, cavity, core, and ej box. Just open the mold base from our library, Pack&Go into the new job folder (renaming so the "00000-000" is changed to the shop order number for the job), and then open that assembly and run with it. Base size, leader pin/bushing size/length, ej guide pin/bushing size/length, straight PL lock size, support pillar size, can all be changed on the fly. It's an evolving thing, changing/improving as we discover better ways.